Source: Patriots name Zak Kuhr defensive coordinator after interim stint

Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald on Feb 17, 2026

Published in Football

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BOSTON — The New England Patriots have named Zak Kuhr their new defensive coordinator, a source confirmed to the Boston Herald.

Kuhr, 37, takes over after serving as the team’s interim defensive coordinator this past season in place of Terrell Williams, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer after Week 1. Though Williams is now cancer-free, the Patriots opted to move him last week into a senior coaching position and open the coordinator job. Kuhr, who officially served last season as the team’s inside linebackers coach, was a leading candidate for the job.

Under Kuhr’s leadership, the Patriots’ defense powered the team’s Super Bowl run by allowing 12 points per game in the postseason. Late in the year, Kuhr pivoted the unit to a blitz-happy approach that relied heavily on scheme pressure and tight coverage from their defensive backs. In the playoffs, the Pats recorded 13 sacks and 31 quarterback hits, while they allowed just three passing touchdowns over four games.

In the regular season, the Patriots ranked fourth in points allowed at 18.8 per game.

Kuhr made a meteoric rise to his first NFL coordinator position, originally breaking in with the Titans as a quality control coach in 2020. A longtime offensive coach in the college ranks, he changed sides to defense in the pros and rose to assistant inside linebackers coach in 2021, a position he held for three seasons. After Mike Vrabel was fired as the head coach in Tennessee, Kuhr spent the 2024 season as a defensive assistant with the Giants before Vrabel re-hired him in New England as his inside linebackers coach.

“He’s talented,” Vrabel said last month. “Being able to do what he did offensively, and then learn what we were doing defensively and kind of learn the game, but also be able to provide assistance with the coaches as maybe why offenses were doing what they were doing or whether some of the zone-read elements from college were starting to creep in or we would see more things, more spread formations and (run-pass options) — he quickly grew as a coach. And I wanted to continue to work with him and keep him a part of what we were doing.”

Kuhr first assumed interim defensive coordinator duties last spring when Williams left the team due to another medical scare separate from his cancer diagnosis. He’s reportedly signed a three-year deal as coordinator, and will preside over a defense that is expected to bring back most of its starters for the 2026 season.

ESPN reported defensive assistant Vinny DePalma will be the team’s new inside linebackers coach.

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